Across his career, Vincent Cassel has logged time with Darren Aronofsky, Danny Boyle, Steven Soderbergh, David Cronenberg, Gaspar Noé and more, earning no shortage of acclaim along the way. So it’s not a surprise that should a spot open up in an upcoming movie, his name is going to be bandied about. But it is a surprise to see him to take over two movies in one week.

Cassel has swapped in for Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Child 44” and Oscar Isaac in “Partisan.” Let’s start with the first one. There’s no word yet on why Hoffman, who joined the movie in June, has exited the movie, but let’s hope it’s scheduling and not a relapse of the personal battles he’s been dealing with this year. Cassel joins a first rate cast—Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, Paddy Considine and Jason Clarke—in an adaptation of Tom Rob Smith‘s novel that follows a disgraced MGB agent in the 1950s Soviet Union investigating a prolific child murderer who may have connections going to the very top of the party leadership. Richard Price (“The Wire,” “Clockers“) wrote the script with “Safe House” helmer Daniel Espinosa directing. No word on Cassel’s role.

“Child 44” is now rolling in front of cameras, and after that, Cassel will step into “Partisan,” first announced this spring. Ariel Kleiman makes the leap from short films to his feature debut in this story about an 11-year-old raised on the communal compound run by the strange and troubled Gregori (Cassel). Production on this one starts in October in Australia. [Deadline/Screen Daily]